This Is England

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

One of the year's best movies...It's one of the simplest and best re-creations of downscale urban England during the gritty post-punk years ever put on screen, and it's both upsetting and very funny.

San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand

The script and direction are virtually flawless.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

As its title implies, This Is England isn't a hyperstylized head-trip a la "Trainspotting" but a straightforward calling to account.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Masterfully charted and acted.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Taut, tense, and self-consciously stylish.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

A modest, near-flawless gem, This Is England is the fifth feature by the young British director Shane Meadows, doing his best work since he first hit the festival scene in the mid-1990s with his hilarious, raw-hewn shorts “Small Time.”

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

The writer-director brilliantly juxtaposes the personal and the political, bookending a stirring coming-of-age drama with the provocative opening and an equally affecting end sequence.

Newsweek David Ansen

It has the feel of a classic coming-of-age story. It's the sleeper of the summer.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

The result is a film marked by eruptions of brutal violence, but also passages of extraordinary tenderness.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter

Authentic, fresh and utterly relevant.

Chicago Tribune Sid Smith

A small film that packs a big wallop.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is taut, tense, relentless. It shows why Shaun feels he needs to belong to a gang, what he gets out of it and how it goes wrong.

Premiere Eric Alt

This Is England may be best summed up as a "coming-of-age" story that puts aside the clichéd baggage often carried by the description and ultimately ends up being moving, genuinely funny, thought-provoking, and highly recommended.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's a remarkably sure-handed film, taking us with Shaun on a journey through alienation, anger, trepidation, ebullience and fear.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

This Is England, set in the social dystopia of Margaret Thatcher's Great Britain, gives us something far more humane and complex than a culturally specific memoir about Doc Martens shoes, reggae music and mindless aggression.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

Somewhere between the pop jouissance of Guy Ritchie and the social realism of Ken Loach, this ballsy drama freeze-frames bleak Thatcherite Yorkshire and exposes its racist underbelly.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Sad, menacing, empathetic story.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Turgoose, in his first film role, is entirely convincing as the strong-willed but naïve Shaun, and Graham is a genuine fright as the feral prototype of the violent skinhead culture on the horizon.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

The 34-year-old Meadows has assembled an effective cast, especially newcomer Thomas Turgoose as Shaun and veteran Stephen Graham as Combo.

TV Guide Ken Fox

British director Shane Meadows' strongest film to date is also his most personal: A stylish fictionalization of his own wayward youth, spent among a group of working-class skinheads in Thatcher's England.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

In addition to telling an involving story, This Is England is insightful and informative.

Variety Leslie Felperin

With its knockout lead perfs and taut if slightly familiar construction, this '80s-set dramedy about a skinhead gang reps Meadows' most fluently made film so far.

Village Voice Nathan Lee

Facile pop psychology is the real tragedy here, a double disappointment given the film's smart take on pop culture.